Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said that the party believes that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is still part of the opposition alliance ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)’. He also stressed that all parties must unite to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections.
Ramesh’s statement comes a day after Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she doubts whether the Congress will be able to win even 40 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“We believe that she (Mamata Banerjee) is still part of the 27-party group ‘INDIA’. She claims that her priority is to fight the BJP. Our priority is also to fight the BJP. I think it will be better if we all unite,” he said on the sidelines of Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Godda. He said that the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), and other parties were together in Patna, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, but it seems that something has happened.
“First, Shiv Sena broke away, then Nitish Kumar did a U-turn. Now Mamata Banerjee ji is making these comments. I think we should realize that this is not a local level election,” he said.
The TMC chief had said, “I proposed that the Congress contest 300 seats (where BJP is the main opposition across the country), but they refused to pay heed to it. Now, they have come to the state to woo Muslim voters. I doubt if they will be able to win even 40 seats if they contest 300 seats.”
Ramesh said that the Congress has been fighting the BJP for the last eight years and will continue to do so. He also said that the party is open to alliances with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in the upcoming elections. “We have been fighting the BJP for the last eight years and we will continue to do so. We are open to alliances with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in the upcoming elections,” he said.
The Congress has been trying to build a united opposition front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, the efforts have been met with limited success so far. The party has been able to rope in some regional parties like the DMK, RJD, and JMM into the alliance, but other major regional parties like the TMC, TRS, and BJD have so far kept their distance.
It remains to be seen whether the Congress will be able to build a strong enough alliance to pose a serious challenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.